Bridge Commander
Bridge Commander| cover image = | series = The Next Generation| date = | publisher = Activision| developer = Totally Games| platform = PC| published = March 2002| }} Star Trek: Bridge Commander is a starship simulator game based in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. The player acts as the Captain of a Federation Starship, carrying out missions and engaging in battle. Introduction (blurb) Spoiler warning: This section contains SPOILERS for the game's plot. Taking place sometime after the Dominion war, this game introduces the Maelstrom, a section of space inundated with strange solar radiation, which makes colonization of planets almost impossible. It is supposedly located somewhere in the Neutral zone, near Cardassian space, given the involvement of the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians in the plot. The pre-game cut scene shows the Galaxy-class vessel Dauntless in orbit of Vesuvi 3 on a re-supply mission for the Dreagos research and terraforming station there. Captain Wright takes a shuttle craft down (The game's manual shows that he had a bottle of Romulan Ale to take to his son-in-law at the station), when suddenly the Vasuvi star begins to explode! The planet and the shuttle are lost in the shock wave, and the Dauntless barely escapes, taking damage to its warp nacelles. Just as they get out, the science station officer records an object warping away from the sun... The Dauntless makes it back to Space Dock for repairs, with a opening credits sequence showing the Dauntless being repaired... Summary Spoiler warning: This section contains spoilers for the game's plot. You, the un-named First Officer of the Dauntless, are promoted to Captain by Admiral Lu of Starbase 12, despite having been a First Officer for only six months. Captain Picard of the Enterprise comes on board along with YOUR new First Officer, Commander Saffi Larsen (The tone of her voice seems to imply a bit of disdain even though she SAYS it will be a pleasure to work with you). From a game standpoint, Captain Picard introduces your crew and gives you an in-game tutorial, which extends to the first 2 missions. The main/Bridge staff is composed of: Sensor Operations and Head science officer Lt. Commander Miguel Diaz; Tactical Officer and Head of Security lt. Felix Savali; Second Senior Helm Officer Ensign Kiska LoMar (Bajoran), and Chief Engineer lt. Commander Solian Brex (Bolian). Each character is decently fleshed out, and they interact very well, almost comically at times. There's also "Random guy who flies across the bridge when you take a heavy hit". For your first mission, you are charged with delivering relief supplies and personnel to the outlaying remaining colonies in the Vesuvi system, but you're forced to divert and destroy some asteroids that threaten to smash the colony. A "decent test of the tactical systems" as Lt. Savali puts it. You are then called to help the Sovereign, which had a break-down in its warp-drive, and although it's being escorted by two Klingon Birds of Prey, they need to leave for Biranu station. As luck would have it, Captain Picard must also go there, so he'd like to go with them... but then the Romulans show up with a pair of Warbirds, suspicious of the reasons for the Sovereign being in the system (The Enterprise-E has been patrolling the area for a while, and the introduction of another such ship has the Romulans a bit shaken). After a bit of a thrown battle, with Captain Picard giving you advice to target the enemy ships' sub-systems, the Romulans decide to take off. From there, you start to investigate what happened at Vesuvi, and it becomes clear that the star was detonated... though by who? The Klingons? Romulans? The Ferengi maybe... The game tries to make you suspect these races, but the Cardassians begin a campaign of aggression, including attacking Biranu station. It is after this that you are given command of the Sovereign, both to aide your investigation and have a little extra firepower. During its shakedown cruise, you are challenged to simulated combat by Captain McCray, Captain of the Akira-class Geronimo... and after that, by McCray and two Klingon birds of Prey. It's a fun ride which you don't have to win, but it's nice when you do! The rest of the story centers around finding out what happened to the Vesuvi star, with damn near everyone trying to get in your way, including a new race called the Kessok, who are in league with the Cardassians. Once the puzzle comes together, it turns out that the destruction of Vesuvi was an accident... but a very re-producible one, and it's a race against time to stop the Cardassians from using more of these "WMDs on a cosmic scale", while trying to get the Kessok's trust, as it becomes obvious that they have been used and lied to. One major point is a Kessok Heavy Cruiser that doesn't attack you unless you attack it first... if you hail it, it will eventually become your ally, as its captain, Nibus, had noticed the Federation's mostly defensive nature and suspected the Cardassian treachery. The end-game is tough: it's a timed mission against a star set to explode, and your options are limited and a little difficult to carry out... also, you can't repair your ship due to your proximity to the Sun, which probably took heavy damage in the last battle... and there are millions of lives in the balance. Meanwhile, your crew continue to give their ideas, which may or may not help your final decision. Game Play Throughout the game, you will be called upon not just to fight, but engage in diplomacy (for instance, lowering your shields in the face of hostility to prove that you are peaceful), engage in espionage (hiding in astroid belts at reduced power to listen in on enemy ships undetected), finding clues and sending out away missions. However, many times, the game will end if you make a "wrong choice" or you perform a task incorrectly. On one hand, it makes the game very linear, on the other hand, if you "fail" in combat, that's game over anyway. Speaking of... Combat In combat, the player has the option of commanding Lt. Savali using a wide array of tactics while Kiska manuvers, or, you can hit the space bar and go into "tactical mode", controlling the ship's actions directly while using a 3rd person view of the ship. Your ship has different phaser arrays which light up when a targeted enemy is in their range, and deplete over time, but recharge quickly. Torpedoes are best fired when the green lines in your targeting reticle line up with one another. You must take into account your shield strength, power settings and damaged systems via Chief Brex's Engineering menu, while maneuvering your ship from danger, and keeping an eye on the enemy's sub-systems to see if any weaknesses open up. Combat opens up even further when other ships require orders from you... sometimes they do fine by themselves, but oftentimes you need to pool your resources and have your fleet attack a single target. In most cases, you can set your phaser fire to "full" or a "low". The lower setting is good for disabling specific sub-systems with longer, but weaker phaser fire once you've gotten through an enemy's shields... and it won't rip apart the enemy's hull, which is good for the few times you have to "disable" someone and not destroy them outright. You can also set your phasers to "manual" and use your mouse to direct where you fire. There are also different photon torpedo types, some of which vary by ship. Federation ships have normal torpedoes, but the Sovereign and Akira classes have Quantum torpedoes, which are faster and stronger. The Kessok/Cardassian hybrids, as well as your Sovereign late in the game, get plasma torpedoes, which have a tendancy to go through shields. Normal Kessok Torpedoes are large mounds of energy with superior tracking... but they're also very slow. Klingon and Romulan torpedoes are a bit faster and track good... while Cardassian torpedoes are quick, but lack tracking or maneuverability. Each ship has its strengths and weaknesses. Ships like the Galaxy and Nebula class are best used by slowly rotating the ship and draining your phaser banks, while firing torpedoes when they line up with an enemy ship. Some ships, like a Klingon Bird of Prey or Romulan Warbirds, work best when they can cloak, get behind an enemy, decloak, and fire off all their forward weapons... however, cloaking and decloaking lowers the shields, while keeping the ship visible and targetable. A ship is destroyed when any of its critical systems fail (its hit points go down to 0). In most cases, these would be the Warp Core, The hull, or the Bridge. The only ship that's an exception is the Klingon Bird of Prey; if it loses its Bridge, it won't detonate and can still fly. This is to make up for a modeling design bug that allows the neck and forward section to be blown clean off in a couple hits. A system or part of the ship won't take much damage unless the shields protecting it are weakened or taken down all together. And each section of shielding (Fore, aft, port, starboard, top and bottom) on each different ship has different levels of protection. For instance, the Klingon BoPs have very strong forward shielding, but the rest of their shields are mediocre. And the Kessok Heavy cruisers have superior shielding all over.. except their bottom, which has the weakest shields in the game. In fact, with the Warp core of a Kessok ship also being on the bottom, it is possible to take out a heavy cruiser with 4 well-aimed photon torpedoes and a few seconds of phaser fire. Various targetable systems include the sensor array (A ship will have a very difficult time fighting if this is taken out), Impulse engines (will slow a ship down or stop it outright if disabled or destroyed) warp nacelles (prevents warp-outs by disabled ships, but in most cases, a ship will warp out before these are destroyed), various weapons systems (phaser arrays, torpedo tubes, shield emiter), tractor beams (Enemy AI ships rarely use these, though you need to use yours in the campaign, so make sure these don't get destroyed) and some ships have targetable cloaking devices. With some ships, it is pertinent to take out the weapons systems before going in for the kill, such as the Cardassian Galors, which will likely detonate once you've whittled down their last weapon... but most of the time, you are better off just trying to destroy the ship by targeting its (usually) under-protected warp core. The Romulan Warbirds fail easily if you take out their impulse engines and maneuver around them. Federation and Kessok ships have too many weapons (8 phaser banks and 6 torpedo bays on a galaxy class, for example) to want to take out all at once, but usually a sustained attack to their rears, which usually only have torpedo launchers, will allow you to prevail. While back there, take out their impulse engines. However, sometimes a series of sustained torpedoes can destroy their forward torpedo tubes and damage their sensors. Characters * Captain Jean-Luc Picard * Lieutenant Commander Data * Commander Saffi Larsen * Chief Petty Officer Brex * Lieutenant Felix Savali * Lieutenant Commander Miguel Diaz * Ensign Kiska Lomar References Starships *CUS Kyria *IKS Bowie’e *IKS Em’ree *IKS Gon’dev *IKS Grerr *IKS Ho’hegh *IKS Jonka *IKS Kahless Ro *IKS Mav’jop *IKS RanKuf *IKS Trayor *IRW Chairo *IRW Chilvas *IRW Soryak *IRW T’awsun *Neb-lig *USS Berkeley *USS Dauntless (NCC-71879) *USS Devore (NCC-64088) *USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) *USS Excalibur (NCC-26517) *USS Geronimo (NCC-69302) *USS Hawking *USS Khitomer (NCC-71906) *USS Nightingale (NCC-60805) *USS Prometheus (NCC-71201) *USS San Francisco (NCC-69480) *USS Sovereign (NCC-73811) *USS Venture (NCC-71854) *USS Zhukov (NCC-26136) *Ambassador class *Kessok light cruiser *Kessok heavy cruiser *Hybrid class Locations *Ascella Supply Depot *Biranu Station *Cebelrai Outpost *Chambana Shipyards *Geki Facility * Goralis system *Haven Facility *Litvok Nor *Lya Station *Maelstrom *Prendel Outpost *Soho Station Species *Cardassian *Human *Kessok *Klingon *Romulan States and Organisations *Cardassian Union **House Arterius *Klingon Empire *Romulan Star Empire *United Federation of Planets **Starfleet **Starfleet Corps of Engineers Other *Solarformer Information Related Stories Images Reviews Connections *The Official Website of the game *Bridge Commander Files *Bridge Commander Universe Forums * Bridge Commander, Star Trek